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Entry tags:
- books: stephen king,
- classical tv movies etc: mahabharata,
- classical tv movies etc: ramayana,
- comics,
- comics: devi,
- comics: india authentic,
- comics: kshatriya,
- comics: project kalki,
- comics: ramayan 3392,
- comics: virgin comics,
- comics: watchmen,
- comics: x-men,
- movies: lord of the rings,
- scanspam: comics,
- television: she-ra
Comic post: G-W newsletter, Shakti reviews, and truck-throwing FTW
First! Girl-Wonder.org wants YOU to a) enter contests and b) submit writing and/or artwork for our upcoming newsletter. Or at the very least, please spread the word as far and as wide as you can. We're hoping to get a diverse group of contributors submitting content for the newsletter. Hopefully.
Second! Me blathering about comics. Anyway, here are a bunch of short comicly reviews, all from Virgin's Shakti line.
File this under "excruciatingly nifty but ultimately not entirely necessary." Meaning that this is a worthwhile purchase if you're really a fan of the series, because it's awesome, but at the same time, you don't really need it to be able to follow the story.
The worldbuilding of Ramayan 3392 is deep and detailed, of course. But to writers' credit, most of it has already been laid out in clear, easy-to-understand terms within the series itself. This guidebook offers a lot of extra information that definitely enhances the series, however. And it also, most importantly, reveals a lot of what's to come. For example, Hanuman, a key character who was barely appeared at all in the main series so far, gets a detailed full-page bio. We get to see the first renderings of Sugreeva and Baali, who also get detailed biographical entries. Likewise Jambwan, Jatayu, and many others. There's detailed information on everything from Rama's lineage to the way that his bow folds for portability. BTW, Rama's ancestors are shown in a series of portraits that mimic real Indian art movements throughout history. Very cool.
Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Baali!
(Imagine him saying that in the voice of Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and you'll get the mental images that perfectly encapsulates this issue.)
Yay, Rama's back! And he has a beard. WHOA. Bold move, Jeevan Kang. Very bold move. But I really like it. The scruffy Aragorn look fits this version of Rama perfectly.
BTW, I really like the way that Kang renders all of the inhuman characters, especially the monkeys. They all look different - Baali is clearly gorillaesque, whereas Angad looks more like a chimpanzee. Oh man, and Kang even got the details right - the monkey-like Vanarans have tails, whereas the more primate-like Vanarans don't. Nice.
However, I'm not so sure I like the plot twist that completely robs Baali of any personal responsibility in the bloody fued between him and Sugreeva. Somehow it makes his story somewhat less tragic than it was in Valkimi's version. I'd much rather read the story of the great king's fall from grace, à la Duryodhana, than read about some great hero that was - oops! - turned evil because of some sort of applied phlebotinum.
Oh well. I did find it very amusing how, no matter how grim, stoic, and scowly Rama is, Viv-Shan is ten times more grim, stoic, and scowly. It's funny how whenever they're together in a panel, Viv-Shan out-stoics Rama every time.
Oh, and fuck you, Comic Book Database. 'Ramayan' is not a character. LOL.
Click for high-res
Oh man, LOOK at that cover! (S.M. Bhaskar and Abhishek Malsuni, by the way. Although the latter is tragically NOT CREDITED inside the actual issue, you can clearly see his signature on the cover artwork.) The inside is great, too, with bright, bold colors and lots of dynamic action!artwork by Swapnil Singh and Gopalkrishna.
Click for high-res
And yes, the story of Andhaka is one of those tragic, stab-you-in-the-heart tales that will leave a person utterly shaken when they're done reading it. But, as usual from Saurav Mohapatra, very good stuff.
What was it that Einstein said about God playing dice with the universe? Because in this story, that's exactly what Vishnu and Lakshmi do. The dice game, of course, is a narrative frame for a re-telling of the story of The Unlucky Loafer. (If you've never heard of that story before, it's the same story told in Stephen King's "The Diamond and the Beggar.") It's a morality play layered within a morality play. So, you know, the usual: Very good stuff. Par for the course for this series.
You want artwork samples? Oh fine, okay. Here's the birth of Lakshmi, a stunning rendition of the churning of the ocean, and one of the coolest visualizations of Brahma I've seen yet:
Artgasm.
Saurav Mohapatra once mentioned that Devi is written with a female audience in mind, and you know, I can totally believe that. Not just because it's one of the best and most genuinely empowering "badass sexy woman" series out there. But also because it's loaded with fangirl-friendly fanservice. As of these two issues, Devi has officially hit the shoujo trifecta: Tuxedo Kamen, love triangle, and now kinda-sorta-if-you-squint-really-hard homoerotic subtext.
What was that, Mr. Singh?
Oh yeah, and truck-throwing.
Gotta love the truck-throwing.
Anyway, issue #20 neatly concludes the current story arc, with an appropriately (and deliciously) ironic ending. In the next story arc, can we have Kratha back? Please?
Krishna... zombie... clones?
Most disappointingly, that's not what we actually get in this series.
What we do get is the mysterious and sinister Shadow Dude, who steals a bit of DNA from Rama's tomb, and then dupes a brilliant geneticist into cloning Rama for him. The resulting "Avatar" is big, blue, and invested with all sorts of horrific powers that he can barely control.
I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke.
The Shadow Dudes's business conglomerate is called Kali Yuga International. Oh that's not subtle. I also wonder how he can be so successful with that name. Can you imagine an American company named Purgatory Incorporated or Apocalypse Holdings LLC? Yyyyeah.
[Click to read hugeass spoiler]Oh, and apparently KALI IS A DUDE NOW. WTF. SERIOUSLY. And "Kali and his one million sons" are plotting to take over the world and extend the Kali Yuga for an eternity... Because Kali is "pure evil" WTF. Okay.[/spoiler]
Aaaaaand then Mohini shows up. She looks like a character out of She-Ra. I'm not kidding.
Also, in this version, Mohini is a separate being that Vishnu created, rather than the much more entertaining "Vishnu in drag" version. Sigh.
So gender-fuckery is okay in the case of Kali, but not in the case of Mohini? Double sigh.
In case anybody hasn't figured this out yet, "Avatar" is actually Kalki, the final apocalyptic incarnation of Lord Vishnu. We'll see how the story progresses from here, but really, there's already an extremely scary version of Kalki that exists in the DC Universe, and this Kalki has a long way to go if he ever hopes to measure up to the sheer horror factor:
Yyyyikes. The DCU Kalki ranks up there with Marvel's Genosha-era Cameron Hodge in terms of "comic book villains that once gave Nenena nightmares." Bad times. Bad times.
Sneaky! Virgin has been sticking these previews in the back of some issues:
A kshatriya with a tiger's arm? I am all over that.
Second! Me blathering about comics. Anyway, here are a bunch of short comicly reviews, all from Virgin's Shakti line.
Ramayan 3392 A.D. Guidebook
File this under "excruciatingly nifty but ultimately not entirely necessary." Meaning that this is a worthwhile purchase if you're really a fan of the series, because it's awesome, but at the same time, you don't really need it to be able to follow the story.
The worldbuilding of Ramayan 3392 is deep and detailed, of course. But to writers' credit, most of it has already been laid out in clear, easy-to-understand terms within the series itself. This guidebook offers a lot of extra information that definitely enhances the series, however. And it also, most importantly, reveals a lot of what's to come. For example, Hanuman, a key character who was barely appeared at all in the main series so far, gets a detailed full-page bio. We get to see the first renderings of Sugreeva and Baali, who also get detailed biographical entries. Likewise Jambwan, Jatayu, and many others. There's detailed information on everything from Rama's lineage to the way that his bow folds for portability. BTW, Rama's ancestors are shown in a series of portraits that mimic real Indian art movements throughout history. Very cool.
Ramayan 3392 A.D. Reloaded #6
Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Baali!
(Imagine him saying that in the voice of Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and you'll get the mental images that perfectly encapsulates this issue.)
Yay, Rama's back! And he has a beard. WHOA. Bold move, Jeevan Kang. Very bold move. But I really like it. The scruffy Aragorn look fits this version of Rama perfectly.
BTW, I really like the way that Kang renders all of the inhuman characters, especially the monkeys. They all look different - Baali is clearly gorillaesque, whereas Angad looks more like a chimpanzee. Oh man, and Kang even got the details right - the monkey-like Vanarans have tails, whereas the more primate-like Vanarans don't. Nice.
However, I'm not so sure I like the plot twist that completely robs Baali of any personal responsibility in the bloody fued between him and Sugreeva. Somehow it makes his story somewhat less tragic than it was in Valkimi's version. I'd much rather read the story of the great king's fall from grace, à la Duryodhana, than read about some great hero that was - oops! - turned evil because of some sort of applied phlebotinum.
Oh well. I did find it very amusing how, no matter how grim, stoic, and scowly Rama is, Viv-Shan is ten times more grim, stoic, and scowly. It's funny how whenever they're together in a panel, Viv-Shan out-stoics Rama every time.
Oh, and fuck you, Comic Book Database. 'Ramayan' is not a character. LOL.
India Authentic: Andhaka
Click for high-res
Oh man, LOOK at that cover! (S.M. Bhaskar and Abhishek Malsuni, by the way. Although the latter is tragically NOT CREDITED inside the actual issue, you can clearly see his signature on the cover artwork.) The inside is great, too, with bright, bold colors and lots of dynamic action!artwork by Swapnil Singh and Gopalkrishna.
Click for high-res
And yes, the story of Andhaka is one of those tragic, stab-you-in-the-heart tales that will leave a person utterly shaken when they're done reading it. But, as usual from Saurav Mohapatra, very good stuff.
India Authentic: Lakshmi
What was it that Einstein said about God playing dice with the universe? Because in this story, that's exactly what Vishnu and Lakshmi do. The dice game, of course, is a narrative frame for a re-telling of the story of The Unlucky Loafer. (If you've never heard of that story before, it's the same story told in Stephen King's "The Diamond and the Beggar.") It's a morality play layered within a morality play. So, you know, the usual: Very good stuff. Par for the course for this series.
You want artwork samples? Oh fine, okay. Here's the birth of Lakshmi, a stunning rendition of the churning of the ocean, and one of the coolest visualizations of Brahma I've seen yet:
 |  |  |
Artgasm.
Devi #19 and #20
Saurav Mohapatra once mentioned that Devi is written with a female audience in mind, and you know, I can totally believe that. Not just because it's one of the best and most genuinely empowering "badass sexy woman" series out there. But also because it's loaded with fangirl-friendly fanservice. As of these two issues, Devi has officially hit the shoujo trifecta: Tuxedo Kamen, love triangle, and now kinda-sorta-if-you-squint-really-hard homoerotic subtext.
What was that, Mr. Singh?
Oh yeah, and truck-throwing.
Gotta love the truck-throwing.
Anyway, issue #20 neatly concludes the current story arc, with an appropriately (and deliciously) ironic ending. In the next story arc, can we have Kratha back? Please?
Project: Kalki #1 and #2
Krishna... zombie... clones?
Most disappointingly, that's not what we actually get in this series.
What we do get is the mysterious and sinister Shadow Dude, who steals a bit of DNA from Rama's tomb, and then dupes a brilliant geneticist into cloning Rama for him. The resulting "Avatar" is big, blue, and invested with all sorts of horrific powers that he can barely control.
I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke I will not make a Watchmen joke.
The Shadow Dudes's business conglomerate is called Kali Yuga International. Oh that's not subtle. I also wonder how he can be so successful with that name. Can you imagine an American company named Purgatory Incorporated or Apocalypse Holdings LLC? Yyyyeah.
[Click to read hugeass spoiler]Oh, and apparently KALI IS A DUDE NOW. WTF. SERIOUSLY. And "Kali and his one million sons" are plotting to take over the world and extend the Kali Yuga for an eternity... Because Kali is "pure evil" WTF. Okay.[/spoiler]
Aaaaaand then Mohini shows up. She looks like a character out of She-Ra. I'm not kidding.
Also, in this version, Mohini is a separate being that Vishnu created, rather than the much more entertaining "Vishnu in drag" version. Sigh.
So gender-fuckery is okay in the case of Kali, but not in the case of Mohini? Double sigh.
In case anybody hasn't figured this out yet, "Avatar" is actually Kalki, the final apocalyptic incarnation of Lord Vishnu. We'll see how the story progresses from here, but really, there's already an extremely scary version of Kalki that exists in the DC Universe, and this Kalki has a long way to go if he ever hopes to measure up to the sheer horror factor:
Yyyyikes. The DCU Kalki ranks up there with Marvel's Genosha-era Cameron Hodge in terms of "comic book villains that once gave Nenena nightmares." Bad times. Bad times.
Kshatriya: Blade of the Warrior
Sneaky! Virgin has been sticking these previews in the back of some issues:
A kshatriya with a tiger's arm? I am all over that.